We touched on this a bit with the quotes, but all of the characters can be analyzed from the point of view of their wealth and/or how materialistic they are. Mining the text for a character's attitude toward money can be a very helpful way to understand their motivations in the world of 1920s New York. My personal culture tree possesses a diverse cultural background as the 'roots', that formed the core and branch values, the values seemed to point towards unity between first nations people and Anglo-Saxon people in Australia since I . Gatsby was Fitzgerald's third novel, and in writing it, he consciously set out to write something more artistic and creative than his previous two books. They were careless people, Tom and Daisythey smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. Renews March 11, 2023 However, that was my fault, for he was one of those who used to sneer most bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby's liquor and I should have known better than to call him" (9.69). I couldn't forgive him or like him but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. On the surface, The Great Gatsby is a story of the thwarted love between a man and a woman. As Fitzgerald saw it (and as Nick explains in Chapter 9), the American dream was originally about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. For some time now I have been thinking about the validity or vulnerability of a certain set of assumptions conventionally accepted among literary historians and critics and circulated as "knowledge." This knowledge holds that traditional, canonical American literature is free of, Gatsby admits this fact (Fitzgerald and Bruccoli 127). Take the Themes, Motifs, and SymbolsQuick Quiz. Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance. Samkanashvili, Maya. Nevertheless, it was still very much frowned on, and being a housewife and having fewer rights than man was still the norm in the 1920s. The outcome of these cultures was the decaying American dream. This situation resulted in corruption of the ideal American dream. The database is updated daily, so anyone can easily find a relevant essay example. The values totally changed instead of striving for equality, people - just wanted to get as rich as they could. In the 1920s depicted in the novel, however, easy money and relaxed social values have corrupted this dream, especially on the East Coast. Get professional help from PrepScholar. Print. (9.146). Nick, meanwhile, dates Jordan Baker throughout the book, and though their relationship has its moments of warmth and kindness, both parties generally seem lukewarm and emotionally distant. In the time period immediately following the Civil War until the Great Depression, America experienced a period of rapid growth and fortune, especially located in this novels setting, New York (The Great Gatsby Novels 74). Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. Check out our articles onGatsbys title, its opening pages and epigraph, and itsfirst chapter. In 1920, the U.S. passed the 18th Amendment, outlawing the production and sale of alcohol. on 50-99 accounts. Being dishonest makes her (Jordan) incredibly uncomfortable with life. To get you started, here is a sample of some of Nick's comments on money and the wealthy, though there are certainly more to be found: "Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reactionGatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." The clash between old money and new money manifests itself in the novels symbolic geography: East Egg represents the established aristocracy, West Egg the self-made rich. ." You'll also receive an email with the link. Daisy herself is explicitly connected with money here, which allows the reader to see Gatsby's desire for her as desire for wealth, money, and status more generally. Woods, Clyde. Although the story is told with grace and beauty, its events are intended to be shocking. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. August 12, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/american-culture-in-the-novel-the-great-gatsby/. It would help your argument to talk about the sudden skyrocketing prevalence of cars on the road in the 1920s, connecting them to increased danger, status symbol consumerism, and modern life. If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda. The smaller European powers were forced into the war as well, based on whatever alliances they had made in the past. Fitzgeralds illustration of the American Dream within his characters directly echoed the societys high-esteemed qualities of success and delight. American Culture in the Novel "The Great Gatsby". See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, presents a critical portrait of the American dream through its portrayal of the 1920s New York elite. All these developments illustrated increased consumer spending as noted by Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a very accurate portrayal of the cultural and social changes during the 1920's. 1929, the 19th Amendment has been passed, era of the flapper was strong, Jazz was popularized, prohibition started, greed was more apparent, and morals were lost. What trench warfare looked like. The Great Gatsby reflects the trends of the 1920's through the transformation of James Gatz, the differences between the houses in West Egg and East Egg, and the unflattering picture of the era. (5.117-118). Print. Print. Many of them cannot proactively grasp the concept of working hard to build their material wealth base. Almost 1 in 4 people now had a car! Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. For instance, rumors exist that Gatsby is involved in the importation and ferrying of illegal liquor amid the existing ban. IvyPanda. This makes Daisy sound like the princess that the hero gets to marry at the end of a fairy talein other words, she's a high-value prize. 2013. The availability of mass-produced items among majority Americans led to the erosion of the existing mechanisms of differentiating people based on their social economic classes. was a self-made man, Gatsby acquired a vast amount of wealth and fortune with perseverance and a fixed purpose in mind. . Inspired by the devastation of WWI, writers in The Lost Generationembraced a cynical view of human nature. In other words, Gatsby loves Daisy's "value" as an in-demand product. The description of Gatsby's parties at the beginning of Chapter 3 is long and incredibly detailed, and thus it highlights the extraordinary extent of Gatsby's wealth and materialism. The Great Gatsby is regarded as a brilliant piece of social commentary, offering a vivid peek into American life in the 1920s. The main theme of the novel, however, encompasses a much larger, less romantic scope. (1.14). In the novel you can see what happened to it during the 1920s. Dont have an account? However, while Nick is wealthy, he is nowhere near as wealthy as the Buchanans or Gatsbyhe expresses surprise both that Tom is able to afford bringing ponies from Lake Forest ("It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that" (1.16), and that Gatsby was able to buy his own mansion ("But young men didn'tat least in my provincial inexperience I believed they didn'tdrift coolly out of nowhere and buy a palace on Long Island Sound" (3.88)), despite the fact they are all about 30 years old. New York, NY, and London: Verso, 1998. Only after amassing a large fortune does he feel able to make his move. We get our best look at Myrtle in Chapter 2, when Tom takes Nick to see her in Queens and they end up going to the New York City apartment Tom keeps for Myrtle and hosting a small gathering (after Tom and Myrtle hook up, with Nick in the next room!). "Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly. Daisy's decision illustrates how few choices many women had during that timespecifically, that marrying and having children was seen as the main role any woman, but especially a wealthy woman, should fulfill. America at this time experienced a cultural and lifestyle revolution. Despite the fact that only few women precisely fitted this description of 1920s flapper, such a description was common in the media. 2022. All rights reserved. While he can observe the social movements of the wealthy with razor precision, he always comes off as wry, detached, and perhaps even bitter. In this novel, actual mountain climbing is safer than social climbing. Women who were never contented with pleasure wore knee-length skirts, overly long draping necklaces, and rolled stockings (Leader 14). Summary. She fails to comprehend why East Eggs people live materially well while she, together with her husband, still remain engulfed in the valley of ashes (Fitzgerald and Bruccoli 76). In the contemporary phenomenon of "Gatsby parties"festivities intended to capture the air of the titular Jay Gatsby's famously lavish, bacchanalian partiesjazz is de rigueur to evoke the 1920s. Set in the year 1922, the novel occurs during the thriving period of prosperity in America where materialism set the tone of society as reflected by the main characters economic successes. Fitzgerald illustrates the era of Prohibition by displaying Gatsbys flagrant misuse of the law, which only results in his own demise and failure as he perishes the same way he entered the city of New York with himself being his only true friend. In other words, wealth is presented as the key to lovesuch an important key that the word "gold" is repeated twice. This marked a shift both in how black culture was understood and appreciated by the rest of the country and in how womens rights were progressing, as well discuss in the next sections. Print. Politically, the women's rights movement next took up the cause of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would guarantee equal legal rights for women. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in the Roaring Twenties, an era largely influenced by gaudiness, independence, and corruptness, which is immediately reflected in the central characters. Gatsbys dream is ruined by the unworthiness of its object, just as the American dream in the 1920s is ruined by the unworthiness of its objectmoney and pleasure. Fitzgerald himself waspart of a circle of modernists who regularly met inParis (others included Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Sinclair Lewis, and the painters Picasso and Matisse). Nick laments, I stared at (Wilson) and then at Tom, who had made a parallel discovery less than an hour before-and it occurred to me that there was no difference between men (Fitzgerald and Bruccoli 158). At the time when the novel takes place, the U.S. was in the middle of a tremendous economic boom and a soaring stock market that seemed to be on a permanent upward swing. In other words, while he opens the book with his father's advice to remember "all the advantages [he's] had," Nick seems to have a chip on his shoulder about still not being in the highest tier of the wealthy class. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com, allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. Fitzgeralds characters that each selfishly overcome different hardships with corrupt solutions represent the immoral mindset of success-hungry people in the 1920s proving that the culture of Fitzgeralds time was accurately mirrored in his novel. WWI was a war of trench warfare, chemical weapons, shrapnel artillery, and other gruesome technologies that had never been seen before. She is conversant with her possession of the charm that she uses maximally to maintain security for her lifestyles. In the monied world of The Great Gatsby, class influences all aspects of life, and especially love. What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For? On the other hand, its horrific death toll and seeming meaninglessness forever dispelled the idea of war as noble and glorious. "They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together." At the beginning of the novel they move to fashionable East Egg, after moving around between "wherever people played polo and were rich together," and are able to very quickly pick up and leave at the end of the book after the murders, thanks to the protection their money provides (1.17). In fact, it seems that the accident may have brought them closer. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. Caroline Brown . You can use them for inspiration, an insight into a particular topic, a handy source of reference, or even just as a template of a certain type of paper. ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score, How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League, Is the ACT easier than the SAT? Curious to see how much Daisy and Myrtle's struggle for more echoes the lives of real women? Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! A close look at these two distinct societies gives an image of a future fictional American society culture, which is free from corruption and largely not driven by individualism. She wasn't able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness I suppose she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was very young" (3.160). Just as Americans have given America meaning through their dreams for their own lives, Gatsby instills Daisy with a kind of idealized perfection that she neither deserves nor possesses. She was not able to endure being at a disadvantage, and given this unwillingness, supposedly she had begun dealing in subterfuges when she was unusually young in order to keep that fresh insolent smile turned to the world, and yet satisfy the demands of her hard jaunty body (Fitzgerald and Bruccoli 63). In real life, this represents aristocracy, which took a long time to establish. The dizzying rise of the stock market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. Continue to start your free trial. Scherer and Ross remark that Americans purchased durable goods in the 1920s, thus increasing their spending on clothes and various mass-produced items (105). Thinking about indulging in a little materialism yourself al Gatsby? Everyone who comes to the parties is attracted by Gatsby's money and wealth, making the culture of money-worship a society-wide trend in the novel, not just something our main characters fall victim to. She thinks that she deserves to be with Tom whose money, influence, and power provide answers to her (Mytle) problems of poverty. hbspt.cta.load(360031, '4efd5fbd-40d7-4b12-8674-6c4f312edd05', {}); Have any questions about this article or other topics? Meanwhile, Tom's mistress Myrtle, a car mechanic's wife, puts on airs and tries to pass as rich through her affair with Tom, but her involvement with the Buchanans gets her killed. "There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. Zeitz remarks, taking advantage of prosperity that was experienced in a decade, youths threw lucrative parties, got excessively drunk in illegal liquor, and used sexually arousing dancing styles in the vast number of established jazz clubs (23). Best Analysis: Money and Materialism in The Great Gatsby, Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, Analyzing characters via money/materialism, Common assignments and analysis of money/materialism in Gatsby, Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now, he opens the book with his father's advice, We've compiled a list of 15 must-have items for fans of. The wealthiest characters own cars and use them to commute between Manhattanand Long Island. Although she is a famous player of golf, she can do anything on the loose to have her right always. He also threw parties now and then, which were equally characterized by high consumptions. Everyone who comes to the parties is attracted by Gatsby's money and wealth, making the culture of money-worship a society-wide trend in the novel, not just something our main characters fall victim to. Past and Future. The first nickname points toAmerica's post-WWIeconomic prosperity and the country's greater influence abroad. Toms unethical conduct is further reflected in several other characters in The Great Gatsby who resort to lying in order to reach success, which ultimately leads to their demise. Though all of its action takes place over a mere few months during the summer of 1922 and is set in a circumscribed geographical area in the vicinity of Long Island, New York, The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. In Nicks mind, the ability to create meaningful symbols constitutes a central component of the American dream, as early Americans invested their new nation with their own ideals and values. But even Gatsby, who makes an incredible amount of money in a short time, is not allowed access into the upper echelon of society, and loses everything in trying to climb that final, precarious rung of the ladder, as represented by Daisy. 22 Apr. When World War I ended in 1918, the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that they had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America seem like stuffy, empty hypocrisy. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Gatsbys parties have a speakeasy feel in that people from different backgrounds and genders freely mix and mingle. Want the complete lowdown on Jay Gatsby's rags-to-riches story? Youve successfully purchased a group discount. . Knowing the hot-button issues of the novel's day gives you a good second way to support arguments about the importance of a particular theme, or your reading of the meaning of a symbol. In 2013, a new movie adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby was released. Daisy Packs Her Bag. London Review of Books 22.18(2000): 13-15. For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more! In The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald documents these changes through an in-depth exploration of cultural changes such as the rise in consumerism, materialism, greed for wealth, and the culture of loosening morals in the 1920s American society. Everyone is there for the spectacle alone. The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. "Al Capone Does My Shirts a Novel by Gennifer Choldenko, Hobbes Materialist Nature of Philosophical Principles. It was a decade of tremendous wealth in the United States following the deprivations of the First World War. Excited to dive in? Why Did Gatsby Fail to Achieve the American Dream? One woman is not just adequate. What the old aristocracy possesses in taste, however, it seems to lack in heart, as the East Eggers prove themselves careless, inconsiderate bullies who are so used to moneys ability to ease their minds that they never worry about hurting others. And furthermore, Daisy's willingness to stay with Tom despite his affairs underscores another aspect of women's roles during the 1920s: that divorce was still very uncommon and controversial. The sheer number of the party participants implies that the 1920s American culture was characterized by indiscriminate spending in an increasing number of products that were availed for sale by the rising manufacturing capacity of the nation. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. Jordan temporarily flouts expectations by ""[running] around the country," (1.134) playing golf, and not being in a hurry to marrya freedom that she is allowed because of her money, not in spite of it. jazz music is a fixture of Gatsbys parties, and almost every song that Fitzgerald describes is a real life piece of music. "American Culture in the Novel "The Great Gatsby"." 4.2 'Aspiration' in The Great Gatsby and 'American Dreams' 4.3 Comparing representations of 'aspiration' in the texts Chapter 5 Comparative study option 2: Human progress 5.1epresenting the concept of 'human progress' R 5.2 'Human progress' in Hidden Figures and poetry by Kathy Jetil-Kijiner Subscribe now. Fitzgerald wroteThe Great Gatsby while in Paris, surroundedby this group. Daisy is coercive and manipulative. Fitzgerald and Bruccoli write, they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together (187-188). This analysis can enrich an essay about old money versus new money, the American dream, or even a more straightforward character analysis, or a comparison of two different characters. Gatsby, like a peacock showing off its many-colored tail, flaunts his wealth to Daisy by showing off his many-colored shirts. (7.103-106). You'll be billed after your free trial ends. F. Scott Fitzgerald, though he didn't actually see any fighting during his time in the army, was a member of this generation. Gatsby suffers the most from the promise of social mobility inherent to the American Dream. They are conventionally characterized by corruption. Nick's comments about money, especially in the first chapter, are mostly critical and cynical. High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. In this sense, better economic fortunes in America, together with the rising mass production in the 1920s normalized the culture of consumption so that products that were consumed by the wealthy members of the society became now affordable to persons in the lower social economic classes. We've compiled a list of 15 must-have items for fans of The Great Gatbsy book and movie adaptations. Romer, Christina. These gardeners cleaned the leftovers of the products that had been consumed during Gatsbys parties that were dominated by haphazard expenses. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? Looking for other literary guides? They even went to the extent of assimilating masculine ways and fashions into their lifestyles. Women were granted the right to participate in voting. However, even though Gatsby succeeds in acquiring wealth, he is never accepted by the upper class. If you understand the history of Prohibition, you'll make better sense of some plot and character details inThe Great Gatsby: Police emptying out confiscated barrels of beer into the sewer. Fitzgerald positions the characters of The Great Gatsby as emblems of these social trends. (3.1-3.6). March 4, 2023, SNPLUSROCKS20 Both Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby have military backgrounds. (7.106). The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points, How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Gatsby, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Despite not being as wealthy as Tom and Daisy, his second cousin, they see him as enough of a peer to invite him to their home in Chapter 1. Literary Themes for Students. | The ramifications of this were political, economic, and social. The second nickname refers to this period's changing social norms and daring artistic movements. However, despite her airs, she matters very little to the "old money" crowd, as cruelly evidenced first when Tom breaks her nose with a "short deft movement" (2.126), and later, when Daisy chooses to run her over rather than get into a car accident. You need wealth, the more the better, to win over the object of your desire. You can thus compare three very different women's experiences to explore how moneyor a lack thereofseems to change the possibilities in a woman's life in early 1920s America. Any time someone isdrinking alcohol in the novel, they are doing something illegal, and are clearly in the know about how to get this banned substance. He spends his life believing that if he makes enough money and acquires enough possessions, he can transcend his lower-class birth and become equal to Daisy and Tom. Nick began his life in the Midwest and always regards it as his home and the place where he belongs, which is directly reflected in his unhappiness and ability to see the corruption of those who reside in the East; conversely, Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby all have roots in the Midwest, were drawn to the East, and remain there, blind to the horrors occurring in their daily lives.
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